


The Collector

by misumaru



Category: Show By Rock!! - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 11:16:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8325670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misumaru/pseuds/misumaru
Summary: Rom would never stoop so low as to buy Trichronika goods. Never. Not even if there was a free figure involved...





	

**Author's Note:**

> Something short, sweet, and stupid. :) Big hugs as always to Ldybastet for the beta!
> 
> Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Sanrio.

It was hot and he was hungry, and that, Rom told himself, was the only reason that he found himself stood in front of an oversized display of Trichronika-branded ice pops. The ones he yelled about and automatically turned the tv off for whenever the advert came on the air. Maybe that made him a hypocrite, but, and this was the most important thing, it _was_ hot. Buying something to cool himself down was a completely normal thing to do. Sensible, in fact. Even if he was on his way to practice and had no way of getting the box home in one piece before everything melted and would have to eat the whole thing in one go.

Less evidence that way.

He could, admittedly, just buy a single ice pop. But the individual ones didn’t come with a figure, and while Shuu’s smug face was the last thing he wanted to see, even in plastic form, it was smarter to go for the option with something free on offer, right? In fact, it would be crazy of him not to, even if it did mean he had to eat a few extra treats. Immediately. Somewhere he could dispose of the packaging without running the risk of anyone he knew seeing him. 

He was about to reach into the freezer and grab a box when his ears pricked up and he was forced to dive round a corner, narrowly avoiding a horde of female Trichronika fans as they descended on the display. Rom was pretty sure he recognised at least one of them; a pig myumon that had been at the front of a lot of their gigs recently. Talk about fair-weather fans… He continued to lurk, keeping out of sight and pretending to be deeply interested in a news article about Baiganba V’s latest stage show until the sounds of excited chattering and the freezer doors slamming back and forth faded away. Taking care to first check, then double check, that all the girls were gone and no-one he knew had decided to make a surprise appearance, Rom crept back to the now much reduced display.

Maybe it was good thing he’d been interrupted. Since when was he some excitable fangirl? And to go so far as to even think of eating the damn things? What the hell kind of flavour was ‘rainbow’ meant to be anyway? They were probably just food colouring and water. Stupid advert. Not that he ever thought about it in any other context than how quickly he could switch it off, of course. Best to chalk the whole incident up to temporary madness brought on by the heat. He’d just grab some water and then he’d be out of there before…

As he walked away, Rom’s foot hit against a fallen sign, previously hidden by the sheer size of the display and knocked off its shelf by the girls. His eyes widened as he bent down to pick it up and put it back in place. Oh. Oh, no. “Buy one get one free”? Now that he thought about it, the advert did say you only _might_ get a figure in the box, it wasn’t a guarantee… His body moved like a man possessed as he reached into the freezer and grabbed a box. And another. And another. And…

***

The bell to the café tinkled as Crow walked through the door. 

“Hey, Rom! Is it just you tonight? Where’s… Wait. Wha??”

Every inch of free space on the bar was occupied by a sea of ShuuZo figures, Angelica doing her best to work around them as she cleaned glasses with a disgruntled expression on her face. It was like something out of a horror movie. A brightly coloured, sparkle-filled horror movie. Crow stood and stared at identical horde with his mouth hanging open. “Where the hell did these come from?”

“Rom said he found them. Didn’t you, Rom?”

A low groan came from a darkened corner of the café where Rom was sat trying to stay very still and very quiet. “Yeah. Found them.”

“So why bring them here? Should’ve just thrown them away.” Crow picked up the nearest figure and pressed the pointy tip of its plastic tail with his finger. “Ow!”

The glass Angelica was cleaning squeaked as she twisted it in her hands. “You said you thought the girls might like them. _Didn’t you_ , Rom?”

“Yeah. The girls…” Rom covered his eyes with his hand, trying to blot out as much light as possible. “Crow, do you mind turning it down a bit? I’ve got a headache.”

“You do look pretty green.” Crow continued to poke at the figure in his hands, making a face as it refused to move the way he wanted it to. Rom could have told him that, it wasn’t like freebie figures were known for their finer points of articulation. “How much do think it would have cost to buy all these?”

Angelica leaned on the bar and waved one of the figures around. “It can’t have been cheap. Whoever left them behind must have had money to burn. Right, Rom?”

“Yeah…” Rom cursed himself for not realising that Angelica would see through his story right away. Still, Crow didn’t seem think there was anything odd, so if they could just change the subject…

“Hey, think we could do something similar? Buy a bottle of milk, get a figure of me!” Crow struck a flamboyant pose mimicking the figures. “Or we could do all four of us! That’s four times as much milk! Way better than eating box after box of those ice things. How many would you have to eat for this many figures anyway?”

The smile on Angelica’s face wasn’t reassuring to Rom in the slightest. “Oh, enough to induce a pretty nasty headache, at least. Isn’t that right, Rom?”

He should have known it was impossible for Crow to stop talking, even for two seconds. The idiot was an expert at picking just the wrong subject. Rom groaned again, suddenly feeling even queasier. The room… The room wasn’t meant to be spinning, right? His vision blurred and the number of ShuuZos in the room seemed to double. Then triple. A whole army of them, turning the café into a technicolour galactic nightmare…

He abruptly pushed himself up from his seat. “I’m going home.”

“Ah? But what about practice? Hey, Rom…!”

Rom closed the door behind him as quietly as possible as he left, resolving to find a very large glass of water and a packet of painkillers in the very near future and to never touch an ice pop again. At least no-one had spotted the tell-tale shape of one of the figures stored safely in his back pocket. Or found the pile of boxes hidden behind the studio…


End file.
